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The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literatureis designed to bring literature to life and to make students lifelong readers. As an instructor of literature and writing, editor Michael Meyer understands that a particular challenge in today's classroom is that students may not see literature as relevant to their lives. They may have difficulty reading it critically and lack confidence in their writing skills. With these factors in mind, Meyer has put together a lively collection of literature drawn from many periods, cultures, and voices, with an excellent representation of contemporary authors, women authors, and authors of color.These works are presented with more than a dozen chapters of critical reading and writing support, and a generous helping of sample close readings, writing assignments, and student papers. And, because everyone teaches a little differently, the book offers more options for working with the literature than any comparable anthology including in-depth chapters on major authors and case studies on individual works and universal themes.

MICHAEL MEYER (Ph.D., University of Connecticut) has taught introductory writing and literature courses for more than thirty years — since 1981 at the University of Connecticut and before that at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the College of William and Mary. His articles have appeared in such distinguished journals as American Literature, Studies in American Renaissance, and the Virginia Quarterly Review, and he is former president of the Thoreau Society and coauthor (with Walter Harding) of The New Thoreau Handbook, a standard reference source. His other books for Bedford/St. Martin’s include The Bedford Introduction to Literature, Eighth Edition, Poetry: An Introduction, Fifth Edition, and Thinking and Writing About Literature, Second Edition.

Resources For Reading and Writing about Literature

Preface for Instructors

Introduction: Reading Imaginative

The Nature of Literature

Emily Dickinson, A narrow Fellow in the Grass

The Value of Literature

The Changing Literary Canon

FICTION

THE ELEMENTS OF FICTION

1. Reading Fiction

Reading Fiction Responsively

Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour

A SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Section of "The Story of an Hour"

A SAMPLE PAPER: Differences in Responses to Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour"

Explorations and Formulas

A Comparison of Two Stories

Karen Van Der Zee, From A Secret Sorrow

Gail Godwin, A Sorrowful Woman

PERSPECTIVES

Kay Mussell, Are Feminism and Romance Novels Mutually Exclusive?

Thomas Jefferson, On the Dangers of Reading Fiction

2. Writing about Fiction

From Reading to Writing

QUESTIONS FOR RESPONSIVE READING AND WRITING

A SAMPLE PAPER IN PROGRESS

A First Response to "A Secret Sorrow" and A Sorrowful Woman

A Sample Brainstorming List

A Sample First Draft: Separate Sorrows

A Sample Second Draft: Separate Sorrows

FINAL PAPER: Fulfillment or Failure? Marriage in A Secret Sorrow and "A Sorrowful Woman"